"My team (Middlesbrough) have had nine men sent off thus far this season, including three in our last two games," notes Tom Buckton. "Is this the record for most red cards for a team in a single season? And if not, how many more men do we need to get sent off?"

Remember when the worst thing Arsène Wenger had to worry about was his players getting lots of red cards, and the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson making snide remarks about Arsenal players getting lots of red cards, but they still kept winning games? The 2001-02 season saw Arsenal win a second domestic double under Wenger, but it was also a time of rank indiscipline: Boro's bad boys have got nothing on the Gunners, who had been shown 12 red cards before the end of February. In 60 matches that season, Arsenal were shown 101 yellow cards – and that was not even including any of the yellows that ended up contributing to sendings off.

Arsenal opened the season with a 4-0 shellacking of Middlesbrough, setting the tone for the campaign in more ways than one as Ray Parlour was sent off just after half-time. (A year earlier, a defeat away to Sunderland in which Patrick Vieira was sent off also set the tone of things to come, so this was something of an improvement.) Having been booked earlier for going in hard on Dean Windass, Parlour went in late on Ugo Ehiogu to earn the second yellow. The naughtiness must have been catching, because it wasn't long before Ehiogu was sent off for tripping Ashley Cole.

At the end of August, Arsenal notched up another 4-0 win, this time over Leicester City, but this time Vieira was sent off, as was Dennis Wise. Both of them, already on a booking, had been warned to calm down by the referee, but couldn't stop themselves squaring up over a poor tackle involving other players that no one can actually remember now. "I didn't think I deserved it," Vieira said afterwards, adding graciously: "But I make mistakes so I have to accept it when the referee does."

"Matches without red cards and controversy seem impossible for Arsenal at present," began the Guardian's report of Arsenal's trip to Mallorca in mid-September. Cole was sent off with barely more than 10 minutes played, the last man as he launched himself clumsily at Alberto Luque, conceding a penalty to boot. "He went for the ball," moaned Wenger, who felt that it was a "very harsh" decision. Arsenal lost to the penalty kick by Vicente Engonga. The manager was feeling a bit more chipper later in the month, though, when Arsenal won 2-0 at Pride Park, despite Martin Keown's dismissal for two bookable challenges on Malcolm Christie. "If I get only criticism of red cards, and not dropped points," he chirruped, "then I can take it."

Oleg Luzhny was the fifth man to be sent off that season, for whacking Schalke's Jörg Böhme in the 16th minute of one of Arsenal's numerous dismal Champions League trips that season. Early November brought a third 4-0, 10-man win, as the second-half substitute John Halls managed to get himself sent off in the 72nd minute against Manchester United in the League Cup. He was booked for handball within 10 minutes of the restart, and then crocked Bojan Djordjic.

Christmas came early for fans of high farce in 2001, as Arsenal lost what we are contractually obliged to describe as a "feisty encounter" with Newcastle United that involved a red card for each side and a late penalty that helped Newcastle to take top spot in mid-December. Once again it was Parlour who was sent off for Arsenal, booked by Graham Poll for an arm aimed at Nikos Dabizas and then, just before half-time, for a late sliding tackle on Alan Shearer that caught the striker's trailing leg. Newcastle had Craig Bellamy sent off in the second half, but went on to win 3-1, prompting a not-at-all-embarrassing rant from Thierry Henry at the final whistle. "They should learn how to lose around here," gruffed Bobby Robson.

Most of the time, though, Arsenal won; days later they beat Liverpool 2-1 at Anfield, despite having a player – Giovanni van Bronckhorst this time – dismissed before the break. He'd already been booked for fouling Sami Hyypia when he took a tumble after the two came together again and was booked for diving. "Giovanni is 100% certain he did not dive," Wenger said, but the referee was adamant. "I had a clear view of it; I felt he was trying to deceive me to get a penalty."

Arsenal met Liverpool again, in the FA Cup, at the end of the January – and this time had two players sent off. Keown's second red of the season was for a professional foul on Michael Owen, with just over an hour played. Minutes later Dennis Bergkamp was sent off for a late tackle on Jamie Carragher – who was also sent off after lobbing a coin back into the crowd. This was Arsenal's 10th red card of the season, and the 42nd of Wenger's spell in charge, but still the manager reckoned that Bergkamp had been wronged. "It seems bad at first sight," he said, making a shaky start. It didn't get much more convincing. "But if you really look, then maybe he wanted only to impress rather than hurt. A lot of people have seen a bad intent, and his foot was high, but he didn't hurt anybody."

Three days later, Bergkamp was lucky not to be sent off for hitting Blackburn's Nils-Eric Johansson about the chops, but Luzhny wasn't quite so fortunate at Ewood Park, where Arsenal nonetheless won 3-2. Coming up to the hour mark and having just been cautioned, the Ukrainian defender hauled down Tugay. "Even the bookmakers are accepting bets on whether Arsenal can finish a game with 11 men," noted the Telegraph. From there on in, though, their record improved, and the rest of the season saw only one more red card – Parlour's third, which came in a 1-1 draw with Bayer Leverkusen on 19 February. Moments after a warning about the lateness of his tackling (there's a theme here somewhere), Parlour caught Yildiray Basturk, and was off for an early bath. "I don't think it was a bad foul but the referee decided to give him a second yellow card," said Wenger. "There's not a lot to say." Apart from, perhaps, "behave yourselves, lads".

"Tom Buckton's Middlesbrough side look angelic when compared to Chester this season," says Ian Burke. "They've had 11 men sent off in their first season back in the Conference. Two of those were in a 3-1 defeat to Salisbury in September, when a man parachuted onto the pitch, mid-game." Actually only Shaquille McDonald was sent off for Chester in that match (the double whammy came in a 3-0 away defeat to Braintree, in October), but that video clip more than makes up for the slip. Don't mind me, lads! Oops, watch your bonce on the canopy there!

"I recall that in the 2001-02 season, Manchester City had at least 10 players shown a red card," says Dickie Denton, who wonders if it might be 11 sendings off, with Ali Benarbia being dismissed twice. We make it 10, though, just behind Chester and Arsenal. At least until the emails start coming in, telling us about all the 27-red-card seasons we somehow missed. "If I remember correctly," Dickie adds, "each red card was shown to a different player, so I would guess that's a record for the number of different players sent off."

Indeed, while there are serial offenders in the Arsenal and Chester squads, City shared the reds around. Paulo Wanchope was first, in the second game of the season, a 2-0 defeat at Carrow Road in which he took exception to a ballboy. Next up – or off, we should say – was Kevin Horlock, sent off for diving against Sheffield United (a match when Lucien Mettomo was lucky not to go after causing Carl Asaba grievous achilles harm). A week later, Eyal Berkovic came on during a 2-1 defeat to Preston and was on his way back to the dressing room 15 minutes later for confronting the referee, who'd failed to award a penalty for Graham Alexander's clip on Darren Huckerby's ankle.

At the end of November it was Christian Negouai's turn, booked early on and again for yanking Tugay's shirt as City lost a League Cup tie 2-0 to Blackburn. Richard Edghill added his name to the list on Boxing Day, during a goalless draw with West Bromwich Albion; booked for talking back to the referee in the first half, he was booked again, for diving, in the area in the second.

Incredibly, it took until the middle of January for Danny Tiatto to be sent off, although the match against Norwich was barely 10 minutes old before he picked Steen Nedergaard up by the shirt and threw him to the floor, right in front of the dugouts. It was actually – Knowledge trivia bonus points here! – the fourth official who advised the referee that it was a straight red. Tiatto took the decision, and a rack full of water bottles, in his stride, before being pushed down the tunnel by Kevin Keegan and assorted City staff. The best bit, though, is when Stuart Pearce looms over Nedergaard and rages: "Get up!"

It was another fortnight before Benarbia was sent off, seven minutes in during a 2-0 win over Millwall, for elbowing Marc Bircham. Days later Pearce was the last man when he felled Wimbledon's Jobi McAnuff, and was shown a straight red. "At this rate they will soon catch up with Arsenal," the Guardian's report quipped. It was another two weeks before Richard Dunne was sent off in the FA Cup against Newcastle, for a professional foul on Bellamy. Shaun Goater made it a round 10 for City in a shock defeat to Stockport in March, dismissed for saving Luke Beckett's shot in the 33rd minute. "I'd rather see us concede a goal than play the rest of the game with 10 men," huffed Keegan, the shine being taken off City's title-winning season. "It's remarkable that City won the Championship by over 10 points that year," says Dickie.

Two more emails, quickly, before we move on: Stephan Wijnen points out that Roda JC, of the Dutch Eredivisie, have already had 10 players sent off this season, and thus might pip City to third place or better. "To make things worse," Stephan says, "they are at the bottom of the table, too." For fun value, there's no bettering Kevin Ikeda's email, which highlights a match in the lower reaches of Argentinian league football from 2011, in which 36 people were sent off after a mass brawl. Bizarrely, it happened again in Paraguay in 2012.

Goals! Again!

Last week we looked at teams with four players on more than 20 goals in a season, but here's Ian Burke and his encyclopedic knowledge of Chester, again. "It's all well and good Celtic, Rangers and Man City having four players topping 20 goals in a season, but Chester can go one better," he says. "They had a quintet of strikers score a score in the 1964-65 season: Gary Talbot, Mike Metcalf, Jimmy Humes, Hugh Ryden and Elfed Morris, with the latter posthumously inducted into the club's Hall Of Fame a few weeks back. Inevitably, they were dubbed the Famous Five.

"They weighed in with 116 of Chester's 119 league goals (138 of 141 in all competitions), but their defence didn't show the same fortitude, shipping 81 goals for an eighth-place finish, seven points behind Fourth Division champions, Brighton. Talbot scored 35, Metcalf 37, Morris 26, Ryden 23, and Humes 20."

PROLONGED PENALTY

"What is the longest wait between the award of a penalty and the kick being taken?" tweets fictional.

"I have a candidate," says Simon McGrother: "Neil Redfearn for Oldham Athletic against Sheffield Wednesday in 1991. I believed that the excellent Piccadilly Radio commentary had the full thing, but listening to it again I think that there is an edit. The gap on the radio is one minute and 10 seconds.

"The penalty meant that Oldham could win the game 3-2 having trailed 0-2 at the hour mark. The win would give us (Oldham) the old Second Division title, which had just been prematurely awarded to West Ham, who were proudly poncing around Upton Park with their grubby mits on our trophy!

"My recollection is that the award of the penalty caused a huge delirious pitch invasion which went on for many minutes. At the time I (and no doubt Neil Redfearn) measured the delay as an absolute eternity, but it probably was no more than two minutes. Unlike me, Redfearn kept his cool and scored. May not win, but always worth retelling."

We struggled to find out the exact length of the delay, though this video, with the pitch invasion edited out, still shows a good 45 seconds between the offence and the kick being taken.

It's still a long, long way off Jason Maxwell's suggestion, though. "On 3 August of 2013 a penalty was awarded in the 21st minute in the MLS match between the Colorado Rapids and Real Salt Lake," he says. "As Álvaro Saborío lined up to take the kick for Salt Lake, lightning struck in the area around the stadium in Commerce City, Colorado. The referees immediately cleared the field and sent the teams into the locker rooms. Sixty-two minutes later, the teams lined up again for the penalty, which Saborío converted to give Salt Lake a 2-1 lead. The game would end up 2-2, but that was enough for the Rapids to win the Rocky Mountain Cup, given by the supporters to the team who wins the season series between the rivals."

FROM THE ARCHIVE?

"Has a team ever been "mathematically certain" of winning the title, only to be deducted points and see it go elsewhere?" asked Conor Green in May 2005.

Actually it has Conor, two seasons on the trot in Yugoslavia back when Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia were still part of the the federation. In 1985-86, the domestic FA ordered the final round of league fixtures to be replayed amid accusations of match-fixing. Partizan Belgrade, who had actually won the title with a 4-0 victory over Zeljeznicar Sarajevo, refused to play the match again. Zeljeznicar were then awarded the game 3-0, handing Crvena Zvezda [Red Star Belgrade] the title. They even played in the European Cup the following season, before a series of legal decisions restored the original standings with Partizan recognised as champions in 1987. Both Red Star and Partizan began the next season with a six-point deduction because of the previous season's events [along with eight other clubs]. Vardar Skopje, who hadn't suffered any penalty, won the title, themselves taking part in the following season's European Cup. But the original deduction was later annulled courtesy of further legal wrangling and with their points tally fully restored, Partizan picked up their second championship in a row.

CAN YOU HELP?

"Concerning Dave Moyes, spending 11 years at a club and then get sacked after losing against them must surely be unique? Or are there other examples?" asks Christian Schmidt. "Also, I cannot remember any examples of anyone being sacked after losing against Everton over the last decade or so, though there must have been some. But is Everton the least "sacked-after-playing-against" club in the Premiership? If not, who is? And which club is most dangerous for opposition managers?"

"My team, Stockport County, are currently on a run of four scoreless draws in succession and their last seven games have produced two goals in total (combined for and against). Rather than deal with the travesty my football team has become it made me wonder what the most boring run in football is," says Niki Halsey.

"Stumbling across this old missive from the Knowledge – with its description of the 1969 war between El Salvador and Honduras, provoked as it was by a football match between the two antagonists – got me wondering if there have been any matches played between nations (or clubs from nations) that were already at war at the time of the match," wonders Tim Grey. "Given that emotions tend to run high when teams representing two nations face each other after a conflict (witness the England-Argentina match of 1986), what were circumstances like in any such match if they did occur?"